Rate cut excitement fades fast

Having got itself so excited ahead of the fact, the FTSE 100 ended rate-cut day in the red, down 8.2 points, or 0.1%, at 6485.6.

While we might usually look out for the rallying retailers and housebuilders to list in the wake of a cut to interest rates, today it's a different story.

Matthew Sharratt, economist at Bank of America described the Bank of England as playing Santa today. "With the UK economic outlook souring fast, the Bank of England today provided the economy with an early Christmas present," he said, predicting rates will fall to a 4.5% trough in late 2008.

It may be a little bit of pre-Christmas cheer, but the slight trimming of rates to 5.5% has been followed by more sell-offs for high street stores like Next, Argos owner Home Retail Group, Dixons, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

In these short-termist times, traders seem too busy worrying about where the next profit-warning will come from to celebrate the rate cut with a buying spree. The prospect of more cuts ahead after the Bank flagged up growth concerns also failed to fire up the FTSE.

Among the housebuilders, longer-term worries about property prices still loom large and they too failed to play out the traditional reaction to a rate cut. Barratt ended down 4.2%, Bellway down 1.4%, Bovis down 2.7% and Taylor Wimpey down 2%.